[NukeNet] U.S. and Russia to Enter Civilian Nuclear Pact- Russia To Become Nuclear Waste Dump?

[Bill Smirnow]

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 >Bush has an interest in taking the agreement all
the way as well. His new Global Nuclear Energy
>Partnership envisions promoting civilian nuclear
power around the world and eventually finding a
way to >reprocess spent fuel without the danger of
leaving behind material that could be used for
bombs. Until >such technology is developed, Bush
needs someplace to store the spent fuel from
overseas, and >Russia is the only volunteer.
>"The Russians could make a lot of money importing
foreign spent fuel, some of our allies would
>desperately like to be able to send their fuel to
Russia, and maybe we could use the leverage to get
>other things done," such as "getting the Russians
to be more forward-leaning on Iran," Bunn said.






http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701588.html?referrer=email
U.S. and Russia to Enter Civilian Nuclear Pact
Bush Reverses Long-Standing Policy, Allows
Agreement That May Provide Leverage on Iran

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 8, 2006; Page A01

President Bush has decided to permit extensive
U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia for
the first time, administration officials said
yesterday, reversing decades of bipartisan policy
in a move that would be worth billions of dollars
to Moscow but could provoke an uproar in Congress.

Bush resisted such a move for years, insisting
that Russia first stop building a nuclear power
station for Iran near the Persian Gulf. But U.S.
officials have shifted their view of Russia's
collaboration with Iran and concluded that
President Vladimir Putin has become a more
constructive partner in trying to pressure Tehran
to give up any aspirations for nuclear weapons.

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The president plans to announce his decision at a
meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg next Saturday
before the annual summit of leaders from the Group
of Eight major industrialized nations, officials
said. The statement to be released by the two
presidents would agree to start negotiations for
the formal agreement required under U.S. law
before the United States can engage in civilian
nuclear cooperation.

In the administration's view, both sides would
benefit. A nuclear cooperation agreement would
clear the way for Russia to import and store
thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel from
U.S.-supplied reactors around the world, a
lucrative business so far blocked by Washington.
It could be used as an incentive to win more
Russian cooperation on Iran. And it would be
critical to Bush's plan to spread civilian nuclear
energy to power-hungry countries because Russia
would provide a place to send the used radioactive
material.

At the same time, it could draw significant
opposition from across the ideological spectrum,
according to analysts who follow the issue.
Critics wary of Putin's authoritarian course view
it as rewarding Russia even though Moscow refuses
to support sanctions against Iran. Others fearful
of Russia's record of handling nuclear material
see it as a reckless move that endangers the
environment.

"You will have all the anti-Russian right against
it, you will have all the anti-nuclear left
against it, and you will have the Russian
democracy center concerned about it too," said
Matthew Bunn, a nuclear specialist at Harvard's
Belfer Center for Science and International
Affairs.

Since Russia is already a nuclear state, such an
agreement, once drafted, presumably would conform
to the Atomic Energy Act and therefore would not
require congressional approval. Congress could
reject it only with majority votes by both houses
within 90 legislative days.

Administration officials confirmed the president's
decision yesterday only after it was first learned
from outside nuclear experts privy to the
situation. The officials insisted on anonymity
because they were not authorized to disclose the
agreement before the summit.

The prospect, however, has been hinted at during
public speeches in recent days. "We certainly will
be talking about nuclear energy," Assistant Energy
Secretary Karen A. Harbert told a Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace event Thursday.
"We need alternatives to hydrocarbons."

Some specialists said Bush's decision marks a
milestone in U.S.-Russian relations, despite
tension over Moscow's retreat from democracy and
pressure on neighbors. "It signals that there's a
sea change in the attitude toward Russia, that
they're someone we can try to work with on Iran,"
said Rose Gottemoeller, a former Energy Department
official in the Clinton administration who now
directs the Carnegie Moscow Center. "It bespeaks a
certain level of confidence in the Russians by
this administration that hasn't been there
before."

But others said the deal seems one-sided. "Just
what exactly are we getting? That's the real
mystery," said Henry D. Sokolski, executive
director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education
Center. Until now, he noted, the United States has
insisted on specific actions by Russia to prevent
Iran from developing bombs. "We're not getting any
of that. We're getting an opportunity to give them
money."

Environmentalists have denounced Russia's plans to
transform itself into the world's nuclear dump.
The country has a history of nuclear accidents and
contamination. Its transportation network is
antiquated and inadequate for moving vast
quantities of radioactive material, critics say.
And the country, they add, has not fully secured
the nuclear facilities it already has against
theft or accidents.



The United States has civilian nuclear cooperation
agreements with the European atomic energy agency,
along with China, Japan, Taiwan and 20 other
countries. Bush recently sealed an agreement with
India, which does require congressional approval
because of that nation's unsanctioned weapons
program.

Russia has sought such an agreement with the
United States since the 1990s, when it began
thinking about using its vast land mass to store
much of the world's spent nuclear fuel. Estimating
that it could make as much as $20 billion, Russia
enacted a law in 2001 permitting the import,
temporary storage and reprocessing of foreign
nuclear fuel, despite 90 percent opposition in
public opinion polls.

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But the plan went nowhere. The United States
controls spent fuel from nuclear material it
provides, even in foreign countries, and Bunn
estimates that as much as 95 percent of the
potential world market for Russia was under U.S.
jurisdiction. Without a cooperation agreement,
none of the material could be sent to Russia, even
though allies such as South Korea and Taiwan are
eager to ship spent fuel there.

Like President Bill Clinton before him, Bush
refused to consider it as long as Russia was
helping Iran with its nuclear program. In the
summer of 2002, according to Bunn, Bush sent Putin
a letter saying an agreement could be reached only
if "the central problem of assistance to Iran's
missile, nuclear and advanced conventional weapons
programs" was solved.

The concern over the nuclear reactor under
construction at Bushehr, however, has faded.
Russia agreed to provide all fuel to the facility
and take it back once used, meaning it could not
be turned into material for nuclear bombs. U.S.
officials who once suspected that Russian
scientists were secretly behind Iran's weapons
program learned that critical assistance to Tehran
came from Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.

The 2002 disclosure that Iran had secret nuclear
sites separate from Bushehr shocked both the U.S.
and Russian governments and seemed to harden
Putin's stance toward Iran. He eventually agreed
to refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council
and signed on to a package of incentives and
penalties recently sent to Tehran. At the same
time, he has consistently opposed economic
sanctions, military action or even tougher
diplomatic language by the council, much to the
frustration of U.S. officials.

Opening negotiations for a formal nuclear
cooperation agreement could be used as a lever to
move Putin further. Talks will inevitably take
months, and the review in Congress will extend the
process. If during that time Putin resists
stronger measures against Iran, analysts said, the
deal could unravel or critics on Capitol Hill
could try to muster enough opposition to block it.
If Putin proves cooperative on Iran, they said, it
could ease the way toward final approval.

"This was one of the few areas where there was big
money involved that you could hold over the
Russians," said George Perkovich, an arms-control
specialist and vice president of the Carnegie
Endowment. "It's a handy stick, a handy thing to
hold over the Russians."

Bush has an interest in taking the agreement all
the way as well. His new Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership envisions promoting civilian nuclear
power around the world and eventually finding a
way to reprocess spent fuel without the danger of
leaving behind material that could be used for
bombs. Until such technology is developed, Bush
needs someplace to store the spent fuel from
overseas, and Russia is the only volunteer.

"The Russians could make a lot of money importing
foreign spent fuel, some of our allies would
desperately like to be able to send their fuel to
Russia, and maybe we could use the leverage to get
other things done," such as "getting the Russians
to be more forward-leaning on Iran," Bunn said.